PSYC315 Chapter 14 (Pt. 4) Habitat Selection

Habitat choice

how animals distribute themselves in space & time with respect to some resource in their environment

1) predict how individuals should first settle into habitats

2) predict the equilibrium frequency of individuals in different patches

2 things the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) model predicts

Ideal Free Distribution (IFD)

model that predicts that animals distribute among resource patches so that each individual gains approximately the same payoff

1) Perfect knowledge of patch quality

2) Free movement between patches

3) No interference among individuals

3 assumptions of Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) model

conditioned place aversion

causes skewing of IFD due to learned aversion of an environment

conditioned place preference

when an animal depletes a reinforcing resource, but continues to go back to the place due to the learned reinforcement of an environment

conspecific cueing

type of cultural transmission that impact an animal’s habitat choice due to the presence of animals of the same species